Anne Hathaway gives First News the lowdown on playing Jewel in Rio, which is out on Blu-ray and DVD this week – both formats come with a free download of 15 all-new exclusive levels of Angry Birds Rio.

Can you tell us a bit about your character, Jewel, in Rio?

Jewel is one half of the last two rare Spix’s macaws on the planet and she’s a very feisty, independent bird. She is birdnapped and held in captivity and goes on an adventure to become free with her new pal, Blu.

Did you help develop her character?

We talked a lot about where she was from, and what it would have been like to grow up in a community where everyone else had flocked and you’re the last of your kind. So we talked about how she would probably be quite lonely but she’s very proud, so she developed that defence mechanism, and has a tough outer shell in order to deal with that.

Did you have to do a lot of preparation before taking on the role?

Not really. I kept asking Carlos (Saldanha, the director) if I had to do more. Like: “Do I need to watch any films? Give me some homework.” He said: “No, what you’re doing is really fine.” It was actually harder than I thought it would be.

Do you particularly love doing voice-over work?

As much as I love doing animated voices, I just love working. I loved the people who asked me to do it and it’s been an honour. I’ve worked on The Simpsons twice and now I’ve worked with Carlos. I just keep getting these opportunities that I can’t say no to.

What did you think of yourself in the movie?

It’s funny – I don’t like watching myself as me, as in a live action movie, so it actually gives me a chance to watch my own work, and more importantly get to watch the work of others too.

You get to sing on screen for the first time – how did you find that?

Carlos can get me to do anything. So then when he says: “So, now can you sing?” you have to say yes!

Did you enjoy it?

Well, it is intimidating to sing in front of Sérgio (Mendes, a Brazilian musician) and will.i.am, as I’m sure you can imagine. But singing has always been something that I’ve loved to do. I never thought about doing it professionally because I always felt more drawn to acting, but who knows? I mean, I’m doing things that I never, ever, thought I would do in front of a lot of people as well, so anything is possible.

Blu and Jewel face a lot of challenges in the movie – what one piece of advice would you give a child to not give up in the face of adversity?

I think the only thing in life that you really have to worry about is how you treat other people. If you mess up and treat someone else badly, you apologise and don’t apologise for anything else. Be yourself and go for it. And then just a little bit of practical advice: when you’re doing something and it feels really hard, what I always do is break it down into achievable goals.

Can you give us an example?

This is such a dumb example, but I don’t love exercise. So what I do is if this – if you’re on the treadmill and you don’t want to finish the thing, you look at it and you say: “Okay, this is 20 minutes versus the rest of my life. I’m going to spend the rest of my life doing so many other things, I can do this for 20 minutes.” Break things down like that and you’ll wind up achieving more than you ever thought you could.

Rio Ultimate Carnival Edition is out on Blu-Ray Triple Play, Blu-Ray 3D and DVD on now from Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.